Mita Industrial Co., Ltd.

Hiroyuki Maede

Masanobu Maeshima

Hiroaki Tsuchiya

Shigeo Koyama

Eiji Tsutsui

Masao Otsuka

Toshihiro Sato

An image-forming machine includes a detachably mountable process unit. The process unit has a rotatable drum having an electrostatographic material thereon, a corona discharger, a developing device and a cleaning device. The developing device includes a development housing for holding a developer, a developer applicator for applying the developer to the electrostatographic material, and an agitating device for stirring the developer in the development housing. An agitating member of the agitating device is arranged to prevent damage of the agitating device due to forces resisting agitation motion by the agitating member. The developer applicator has a sleeve member for holding a developer on its surface, and a developer regulating blade which regulates the developer layer thickness, on the surface of the sleeve member, to provide an uniform developer thickness in the width direction. The cleaning device includes a toner removing device for removing residual toner from the electrostatographic material, a toner collecting chamber and a toner conveying passage extending from the toner recovery housing to the toner collecting chamber. The toner removing device includes a cleaning blade which, when the process unit is mounted at a predetermined position in the image-forming machine, is moved from a non-operative position away from the electrostatographic material to an operative position wherein it is brought elastically into contact with the electrostatographic material. A toner conveying device having a coil is disposed in the toner conveying passage.

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Otsu, Japan

Hiroyuki Maede